The Garden Of My Imaan

The Garden Of My Imaan by Farhana Zia, 230 pages

Aliya is a girl who is trying to figure out what it means to be Muslim in America, and it what it means to be growing up in general. She has some friends, both non-Muslim friends at school and some Muslim friends at her Sunday school. Her Muslim friends observe different levels of their faith. For example, some of them wear head scarves all of the time, while Aliya only wears one for prayers. Some of them observe halal food traditions very strictly and others don’t. Some of the girls her age are planning to fast for Ramadan but Aliya isn’t sure she’s ready. Aliya really likes on boy at school but he doesn’t seem to realize she even exists. But another boy is always bullying her. Then another Muslim girl, Marwa, starts at Aliya’s school. Marwa seems very confident about who she is and doesn’t let anyone bully her. And everyone expects Aliya to be her friend just because they are both Muslim. Aliya kind of likes Marwa, but she has her own life and if she hangs out with Marwa they might stand out and Aliya wants to fit in. But Aliya kind of wishes she could be more like Marwa and not care so much what other people think. A really nice coming of age story that a lot of later elementary school girls could relate to.